There’s been plenty of conspiracy theories about the 2022 Victorian State Election running around, like Daniel Andrews has actually died and been replaced by a body double and preference votes haven’t been properly counted in an electorate where a candidate was voted in on primary vote alone,

But one stuck out in my mind, that the “Sack Dan Andrews” party was actually a front by the Labor party to harvest or funnel votes back to Labor under the guise of cashing in on the supposed “anti-Dan” sentiment.

It would be a smart, albeit misleading play which would absolutely politically backfire … but if it worked, then it was a success right?

First, let’s take a look at the claims. The first inference that the party was actually set up by Labor dates back to November 23, and was covered by a video by Rebel News on November 25

⚠️⚠️ DO NOT vote for the “Sack Dan Andrews” party if you want him out!

SPREAD THE WORD to alert everyone that the “Sack Dan Andrews Party” was registered in a sneaky bid to harvest votes and, in some seats, preferencing them BACK to Labor.pic.twitter.com/QFQucqZLQ4

— Avi Yemini (@OzraeliAvi) November 25, 2022

How does it work?

Onto the actual logistics of how a party could be set up to deceive you, and send your votes to a different party.

The only way a party could decide where your preferences go is if you vote for that particular party #1, above the line in the upper house ballot.

Otherwise, any preferences you mark – either below the line in the upper house, or any votes cast for the lower house – will be allocated by the VEC. You chose where your vote goes.

In the upper house, parties must submit a “Group Voting Ticket”, which tells the VEC how to allocate preferences if a voter puts a 1 in that party’s box above the line in the upper house.

These GVTs are public, and listed on the VEC website

Generally in the GVTs, candidates are grouped into party blocks although there are some instances where this hasn’t happened, including the SDAP GVT.

Who did the party preference?

Predominantly, the SDAP put “Angry Victorians”, “Labour DLP”, “Liberal Democrats”, “Freedom Victoria” and “Health Australia” in the top spots of their GVT.

In a few cases, single candidates from the major parties appeared in the top 15, with the highest at 5th (still behind above listed parties)

• North Eastern Metropolitan Region: Liberal candidate Matthew Bach #5
• Western Metropolitan Region: Liberal candidate Moira Deeming #15
• Eastern Victoria Region (1 & 2): Liberal candidate Renee Heath #9
• Western Victoria Region 1: Labor candidate Megan Bridger-Darling #7
• Western Victoria Region 2: Liberal candidate Bev McArthur #12

Outside of those, Labor, the Liberals and Greens were all preferenced at position 35 or lower, certainly not a position that would be “funneling” votes to Labor.

The Upper House candidate list for all regions is between 55 and 62.

Results: how did it affect the outcome of the election

In the North Eastern Metropolitan Region, Matthew Bach was top of the ticket for the Libs, and was elected on primary votes alone. Any votes from SDAP that had preferences flow to him would have kept going down the GVT.

In the Western Metropolitan Region, Moira Deeming was top of the ticket for the Libs, and was elected on primary votes alone. Any votes from SDAP that had preferences flow to her would have kept going down the GVT.

In the Eastern Victoria Region, Renee Heath was top of the ticket for the Libs, and was elected on primary votes alone. Any votes from SDAP that had preferences flow to her would have kept going down the GVT.

In the Western Victoria Region, Bev McArthur was top of the ticket for the Libs, and was elected on primary votes alone. Any votes from SDAP that had preferences flow to her would have kept going down the GVT.

Also in the Western Victoria Region, Megan Bridger-Darling was third on Labor’s ticket, so was very unlikely to pick up a seat. She was excluded at Count 5 of the process, before SDAP, so there was no way for it’s votes to end up with Labor.

Disclaimer: Vote counting has not finished for the Upper House. The process for each region is between 60% and 75%. Final results may slightly differ from article, but it doesn’t change the crux of the story.

How did votes from the Sack Daniel Andrews Restore Democracy party end up in Labor’s hands?

They didn’t

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Sources / References

One of the Group Voting Tickets listed on the VEC website – see the website for the full list of tickets for all parties, in all regions:

Antony Green’s personal blog website has taken the time to decipher the Group Voting Tickets in an easy to read format, here’s the screenshots of all the “Sack Dan Andrews Restore Democracy” party GVT.